Poor Workers' Unions: Rebuilding Labor from Below

by Vanessa Tait

“Finally, the book we’ve all been waiting for! With gripping tales of grassroots experiments in social justice unionism from the 1960s to the present, Vanessa Tait cracks wide open our concept of what a labor movement looks like, and shows how it can be part and parcel of movements for racial and gender justice. In the process, she does a stunning job of helping us imagine workers’ movements that are creative, democratic, and, above all, build power from below—pointing the way to a vibrant future for labor.”—Dana Frank, UC-Santa Cruz; author of Buy American: The Untold Story of Economic Nationalism “A critical contribution to broadening our understanding of who and what is the labor movement in the USA. . . . Tait captures the dynamism of alternative forms of working class organization that have long been ignored. In formulating a new direction for organized labor in the USA, the history Tait addresses must become a recognized part of our foundation.”—Bill Fletcher, Jr., President, TransAfrica Forum and former assistant to AFL-CIO President John Sweeney
“While the AFL-CIO and its affiliated unions desperately try to figure out how to rebuild and energize the labor movement, this exceptional book reveals that poor workers have been showing the way for the past forty years. Utilizing original documents, Tait examines . . . a wide range of movements organized by poor workers to improve their circumstances and build a more just society, including the Revolutionary Union Movement, the National Welfare Rights Organization, ACORN’s Unite Labor Unions, workfare unions, and independent workers’ centers. She demonstrates that these movements were founded and developed upon principles of rank-and-file control, democracy, community involvement, and solidarity and aimed to improve all aspects of workers’ lives. . . . Both labor activists and labor historians will learn much from this book.”—Michael Yates, author of Why Unions Matter

Genres: Labor, Nonfiction, Politics

272 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

Journalist and labor activist Vanessa Tait received her PhD in sociology from the University of California, Santa Cruz. Her writings have appeared in publications such as New Labor Forum, Critical Sociology, Labor Notes, the Boston Phoenix, Qualitative Sociology, and the Guardian. Her radio work appears regularly on KPFA/Pacifica.

Reviews

[Alisond · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this book, and you'll find a wealth of fascinating hidden labor history. During the 1960s and 70s, domestic workers organized for their labor rights, as did workfare workers and fast food workers. The author shows how racial and gender justice movements were part of a national economic justice movement, which was just outside of the gates of mainstream trade unionism, sometimes in alliance with it and sometimes at odds with it. Extremely useful!

[Denny · Rating 5 out of 5]

I LOVE this book! I've assigned it to several undergraduate classes and find it is accessible and enjoyable for students. It encourages discussion of how unions can better organize, as well as the history of worker actions outside of formal union structures. Great overview especially of 60s, 70s which is hard to find elsewhere.

[Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great "people's history" of US labor after 1960. Tait's many examples of community-based and rank-and-file unionism are inspiring, especially in light of the continuing decline of the largest unions in the US.

[Ixana · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fantastic read, a story that covers "economic justice" organizing in the 1960s social movements to current union-allied efforts to organize immigrant workers and fast food workers. This is the history missing from so many labor movement accounts. It makes visible the work of women, people of color and undocumented immigrants within the world of community and labor organizing in a way few other works have. Inspiring stuff for those of us mired in real day-to-day organizing dilemmas.

[Yvettea · Rating 5 out of 5]

Compelling history of innovative community-based union organizing among low wage workers since the 1960s, and how this activism is closely related to movements for social justice. Connects civil rights, feminist, left politics with changes in the labor movement over the last few decades. Rare to find a work that links social movement and labor studies so well.

[Teresa · Rating 5 out of 5]

These stories drew me in. They are both individual and collective. Reads more like a novel than a historical study in many places. The book covers many struggles of low-wage workers, especially women and people of color, placing them in the context of organizing in the community rather than just in the workplace. Recommended.

[Fran Henderson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really good and inspirational for the future of workers movements

[Torie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely tremendous book. An overview of labor history I was totally unfamiliar with (did you know that organized community members, separate from unions, staged massive actions over the last 75 years and achieved gains without any legal standing? That welfare workers organized and won?). Also has a very clear and compelling argument about how to achieve change in the future as our legal rights become progressively weaker. I also want to mention how well-structured the book is, and divided into small digestible units.

My only warning is that it’s fundamentally a history and organizing book, so there’s a lot of that happened, then that happened, then this happened, and only a few people or characters.

[Natalie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tait covers very important history here. But because her scope is so wide, her analysis is rather shallow. It is almost painful to read about heroic campaigns, and see all the work and planning and patience and strategy that goes into it summed up with, "And they were victorious."

While it's important to know some of the achievements of these groups, I'd be more interested in an analysis of how they brought about their successes.